EPIDEMIC OF PSYCHIATRIC DRUG: TYPOLOGIES OF USE IN THE BURNOUT SOCIETY

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the phenomenon of the epidemic of psychiatric drug use from the perspective of increasingly widespread consumption and its relationship with the creation of social subjectivities that are constituted by medicalization. Two different contexts of use which are not necessarily linked to diagnoses were considered. At one end of the phenomenon, consumption aimed at improving performance in competitive market activities is identified, with drugs such as methylphenidate being used with the perspective of going beyond the usual development of social and productive practices. At the other end, there are vulnerable populations that use psychotropic drugs in order to support everyday experiences of suffering that would otherwise be intolerable. The analysis, presented in the form of an essay, indicated a process of accentuated use of psychiatric drugs related to the ideals of productivity and performance dictated by the normative pattern of neoliberal subjectivity, which particularly affects women.